An Installation of Uncertainty: Reclaimed
by AedanRyche
Summary: A full assault is launched by ODST members on the Covenant home world. After a slipspace rupture throws them off course, Rockstar and his squadmates must find out what is going on in this strange sector of space. M for gore/lang. RESTART OF CANCELED ORIGINAL STORY.


'_Feet first into Hell'. That is the ODST motto. But I never imagined hell could be so much like home._

Corporal Jared Masters, call sign Rockstar, was asleep in the cafeteria of the ONI destroyer _The Gates of Asgarde_, his head and back propped up against the wall next to a bench. The medium size spy ship had been cloaked for the past forty-eight hours, trying to follow a covenant cruiser that the UNSC had allowed to escape. So far, they had only been successful in traveling through a Shaw-Fujikawa event cloaked and coming back out far enough away that the cruiser could not detect them. It was not an easy feat to accomplish.

Several marines and ODST's in full gear walked into the cafeteria, chattering amongst themselves. The commotion woke Jared, the ODST staring at the ceiling through his activated visor. He wasn't much for their sort of conversation. While they would talk about how many enemies they had killed or the newest release from Misriah Armories, he would talk about family or a girl back on earth. He was especially shunned when they talked about the best way to take out a Brute or Elite. Jared had never run across one of the eight-foot tall monsters, and as far as he cared, he never wanted to. Once, while on a sniper run with his old sergeant, he had witnessed a brute tear a marine in half with its bare hands. He considered himself lucky to have never had one come after him.

Suddenly the ship's lights went out, the sound of the engine powering down filling the structure. "Shit," a marine said in the room. "Dead in the water. Don't those squids know what the hell they're doing?" The other soldiers laughed at his joke, stopping as claxon alarms sounded.

"_All marine forces report to combat stations_," the ship's AI announced, red Action Stations lights filling the rooms and corridors "_Covenant transmition report arrival at Elite home-world_." The soldiers looked at each other, Jared simply sitting up and loading his M7s sub machinegun. "_All Orbital Drop Shock Troopers report to SOEIV pod bay for immediate drop. UNSC fleet has arrived and is engaging enemy ships._" The soldiers rushed out of their seats, running out of the mess hall and into the corridors.

The ship was buzzing with activity, marines running about to acquire weapons and ammo, some running to the launching bays to launch for strike runs from Sabers and Longswords. Jared had left the mess hall with his squad, the five soldiers running down an access corridor that cut their distance from the pod bay.

"Do all of you have the mission parameters," Captain Dustin O'Hare, call sign Skipper, asked as they entered the pod bay. He went to the arms locker of the bay, grabbing a BR-55 and a sniper rifle from the wall. "We hit the ground, kill anything in the area during the shock and then regroup near an easily recognizable landmark." The red-haired captain ran over to his pod, opening the side hatch and placing his rifle and carbine inside.

"And what if we land in a city," Sergeant Nikita Statsov, call sign Heavy, said through his Russian accent. He walked out of the locker carrying a Galilean Non Linear Rifle and an MA5C assault rifle. "I do not think we will have much time to gather while we are taking plasma fire." He followed Skippers action, placing the weapons in the side hatches before climbing into the pod.

"Then we work our way through the place," Private First Class Kevin Daniels, call sign Phantom, said as he followed Jared out of the locker, his Brooklyn accent strong on his voice. Both of them held M7's in their hands, silencers attached to the barrels.

"I agree with Phantom, Heavy," Sergeant First Class Diana O'Hare, call sign Challenger, said. She placed her MA5C in the side hatch, choosing a DMR as her secondary. She tied her long hair in a bunch, the golden locks moving into place as she donned her helmet and turned off the VISR system. "Once we all get together in the city we find a defendable location, set the locator beacon and fight off any chop jaws we encounter until reinforcements arrive." She climbed into her pod, the doors to each of the five vessels closing as the positioning clamps activated.

The ships automated systems carried the team's pods around the others that were brought up behind them, settling over an open area in the hull. "Are we still cloaked," Phantom asked as the pods dropped below the hole. Jared leaned back in his seat, making sure his equipment was secured as the screens came on. On the six screens were the other team members, the face of Lord Hood manifesting on the remaining one.

"Soldiers," he said, the recording playing as the team called out their status. "This mission could end the war. I want each of you to know that if things go wrong that you may not be picked up, so I want you all to be prepared to survive on the hostile planet until we can send a rescue mission." Phantom laughed on his screen, putting on his helmet and making a snarky remark. "This message goes out to you five. Hellfire squadron is to locate and eliminate all Prophets on this planet. Once that objective is complete, you are to find and eliminate any of the Elite's high-ranking political groups. God speed, Hood out."

"This sounds like Market Garden," Challenger said as the clamps released, the gravity of the planet below them pulling them away from the Destroyer quickly.

"What's Market Garden," Phantom asked. Challenger shook her head disapprovingly, Skipper laughing slightly.

"Market Garden was one of the biggest allied cluster-fucks of World War Two back in the Nineteen Hundreds," He said. "It was meant to end the war by Christmas, but due to hasty planning, and a strong German counter offense, it went shit storm…" He stopped, his sentence trailing off as he looked out of his pod. "Shit…," he mumbled. Rockstar looked out of his pod too, seeing what had drawn Skippers attention. Nearly a Kilometer below them was a Covenant cruiser, opening a Slip Space Rupture as the UNSC INFINITY fired a MAC round at its aft section. "Hang on, this might not be good." Skipper belted himself into the pod, something he never did in all of Rockstar's experience. The Super Mac's ferrous round struck the Covenant cruiser dead in the center engine, the round passing through the entire ship as it entered the rupture. Rockstar felt his pod shake hard, causing him to be jostled around the vessel.

"Chyorrt," Heavy said. "We are being pulled in!" Rockstar strapped himself in, as did the others.

"Don't worry," Skipper said. "The pods can handle it. Just make sure to activate your beacons after we go through. I doubt we will be in UNSC charted space when we…" He was cut off, his screen being covered in snow as his pod was pulled into the event.

Rockstar watched as each of the pods were pulled into the rupture, knowing he would be too. "Dammit," he mumbled, watching his pod come up on the event. His pod shook again, this time the disturbance lasting as the pod entered the event. The space around him took on a pink and purple color as the tunnel formed around him, the event causing him to be shaken harder. He felt his head strike something in the pod, and then his vision went black.

**...**

"Give me information Gaeta," Admiral Adama ordered as he watched the DRADIS displays over the CIC. "Did we lose them or not?" An olive skinned man of around thirty checked over his station displays, watching the information feed.

"That's an affirmative Admiral," Gaeta said as the remainder of the crew began to perform a post FTL check. "No Cylon forces detected on long rage DRADIS," Adama sighed in relief, letting some of the tension fall out of his body as he looked across the map table at his Executive Officer, Colonel Saul Tigh. "But I wouldn't say we are out of the woods yet," Gaeta continued. "There is a large cluster of unknown contacts sixty AU's Star-ward. They aren't moving either." Adama stared across the table, looking past Tigh.

**...**

Kara Thrace, call sign Starbuck, walked toward a long black viper in the hangar; the craft lacking any weapons and having the words_ Laura II_ painted on the nose. She had just received her orders from Deck Chief Gaelen Tyrol, the large mechanic having received a call from the admiral. The orders were to fly out towards the star for sixty Astronomical Units, from there she was to go dark and take still shots of a cluster of unknown contacts. She had just changed into a darker flight suit, having grabbed a black helmet, when a voice called out behind her. She turned around, resting her weight on one leg as he glared at her Flight commander Lee Adama. "Dammit Lee," she said, the young pilot trotting up to her. "I have orders and if I get busted for being slow I'm going to take it out on you." Lee stopped in front of her, holding up his hands and backing away.

...

Kara cut her engines, turning off all of her lights as she neared the now evident fleet and continuing the spy run dark. "What the hell made you," she questioned the universe as she drifted closer. The ships resembled eels or some strange sort of fish from a distance, the colors varying from silver for the largest one in the group to blue and bright pink for the smaller ones. Kara activated the camera sets built into the panels of her snub craft, the computers taking frames of the ships as she drew closer. "Warships," she mumbled as she came alongside the largest one, the silver hull reflecting the outline of her Blackbird. She diverted her port side camera to a pair of what looked like cannons, taking several frames as she passed. "And you've been in a rather large fight recently," She continued along the starboard side of the presumed flagship, her maneuvering thrusters changing her course to allow her a more distant view. "Something kicked your ass hard," she gasped as she beheld the large exit wound in the bow. She took several still frames, halting her lateral movement around the nose and bringing the ship to a stop before the hole. "Stern to bow," she commented, nudging her ship closer to the hole.

Inside the massive vessel floated thousands of bodies; each one varied slightly but followed the same basic form. "Let's take a closer look," Starbuck said, nudging her ship farther into the hole. She watched as her craft drifted into the hole, the gaping tear dwarfing even the Pegasus in size. The sounds of debris impacting on her ship caught her attention as she pushed her way in, Starbuck slowing her advance to keep the damage to the hull minimal. Acting quickly she scanned the ship with radio, the echo showing no signs of life other than the motion of floating bodies. Deciding to risk it, she activated her lights, the bright bulbs illuminating everything in the area. "Oh my Gods!" she screamed as the lights came on, instinctively trying to back further into her seat as she stared into the open maw and golden eyes of an unidentifiable body.

**...**

"_Galactica,"_ the voice of Kara Thrace played over the CIC speakers. _"This is Starbuck. I'm inside the ship and have some news for you."_ Adama nodded to the coms manager to patch him through to the pilot, receiving a thumbs-up motion before he lifted his receiver from its cradle.

"Starbuck, this is Actual," He said, holding the button down. "What do you have for me? We lost what squawk your craft gives out when about ten minutes ago. How deep into that cluster did you go?" he let go of the button, looking over some of the long-range stills of the group contacts.

"_Yeah, when I said in the ship, I meant inside the fracking ship," _she said, her usual sassy tone slightly shaky. _"The largest of the apparent warships has a hole, and I am talking a massive hole, that runs from stem to stern. I am sure that both you and the Pegasus could navigate this on top of each other and side by side."_ Adama looked up from the stills, looking at Tigh with a look of disbelief. _"I am currently in the center of the bulge on the ship nose, sir. And you might want to take a first-hand look at what I've found. Even I don't believe what I'm seeing." _Tigh looked across the table at Adama, the admiral nodding to him.

"Get out in the open and give off a locator beacon," Adama said over the com line. "We're sending out a raptor to bring back what you think is so interesting. Can you give a visual description of the object?" the line was silent for a while, Duala mentioning that Starbuck had reappeared on the DRADIS. Starbuck's radio reply started with a few grunts and the sound of her maneuvering thrusters firing.

"_Dammit," _she said as the sound of metal scraping against metal filled the radio. _"That doesn't sound good. Negative Actual, and believe me; you'll know it when you see it."_

**...**

"Ya' know Track, I'm starting to see a pattern here," the dark skinned pilot Skulls said at his station. "Have a flight that needs a Raptor and has uncertain safety conditions? Send in Racetrack and Skulls!" Racetrack laughed in her seat as she navigated the debris in the ship. "I mean really, what if whatever had destroyed this thing is still out there? We would be an ant to the fracking thing." Racetrack stopped the Raptor, shaking her head slowly as a shadow moved around in front of the glass.

"The good thing about being an ant before an elephant," she said, maneuvering around the shadow. "Is that you are usually ignored by the elephant. Give me some light up front." She said, Skulls moving the joystick that controlled the lights to flood the forward direction. "Fracking hell!" Racetrack shouted as she worked her way back into the ECM station, her breathing panicked. Skulls looked at her as if she had lost it.

"What's gotten into you," he asked. She shook her head, gasping for air as she paced about the area. Skulls looked in direction of the cockpit, standing up from his seat and making his way to the front. "Oh my Gods," he mumbled as he saw what she had ran from. He activated his radio, hailing base. "Galactica, this is Skulls," he waited for the reply.

"_Skulls, Actual. Go ahead,"_ Admiral Adama said, the radio garbling his words slightly. Skulls swallowed twice, sighing heavily as the creatures face rotated away. He turned around, trying to force the image from his mind.

"Yeah, umm… we found what Starbuck reported." He looked at Racetrack, patting her on the shoulder to calm her down. "Do you want us to bring it in?" He chipped Racetrack under the chin of her helmet, raising an eyebrow questioningly. She nodded, sniffing and regaining her composure as they waited for a reply from the Galactica.

"_Affirmative Skulls,"_ Tigh said over the radio. _"Make it two if there is another. We will have a containment crew ready on the hangar deck for when you arrive. Galactica out."_ Racetrack nodded once, taking her seat and grabbing the sticks as Skulls moved to the door. She kept the main engines offline, deciding to let the maneuvering thrusters do the fine work as Skulls grasped the air lock handle.

"Purging atmosphere," Racetrack said, pressing a series of keys and switches before the compartment hissed, the air escaping out of the starboard side. "Moving to allow access to the bay," she said, Skulls turning the handle and letting the hydraulics raise the door. "Tell me when Skulls," she said, the artificial gravity of the Raptor turning off as she moved forward. Skulls kept watch as she moved forward, the creature coming into view along the top of the wing.

"Three feet," he said, Racetrack pushing the craft forward before halting progress. Skulls made a guess on the remaining distance. "Bring it in and move forward three more feet." She followed his directions, moving forward the specified distance before moving to the left. Skulls moved back slightly as the creature neared the door, a limp arm floating in before the head and torso. He grabbed the body by the shoulder, pulling it into the bay further before its legs struck the side of the fuselage and sent it into a spin. "Shit, hard Port! It's getting away!" Racetrack pressed the stick to the left, the thrusters moving it in the direction and catching the body. "Got it!" He yelled, closing the door and pushing the body to the floor before the gravity returned.

**...**

Doc. Cottle took off his exam gloves, dropping the now purple latex into a biohazard box. "It ain't Cylon," he said, pulling a pack of Cigarettes from his pocket and lighting one. "Every skin job you've sent my way has had certain defining features. Silica pathways in the brain, abnormally colored spinal fluid, denser bones and muscles… you know, the usual shit." He waved to the creature on the table, its chest pried open. "This thing has two hearts, a chambered stomach, four kidneys and a liver the size of two human livers." He took a pen and pried back a mandible, revealing several rows of shark like teeth. "It's most likely carnivorous, it has dexterous mandibles lined with teeth designed to rip and tear. It had two long fingers and two fully opposable thumbs on either side of those." Adama walked around the table the body was on.

"What is this," he asked, tapping a blue plate on its thigh. "A shell?" Cottle shook his head, taking a drag on his cigarette.

"It's some kind of armor," he said, pointing to a pile of similar plates in the corner. "I sent a sample to Baltar for an analysis on the alloy. And I found," he paused, fishing in his coat pocket for something and revealing a curved, black rod with two triggers on the inside. "This. It shouldn't take a genius to tell that those," he pointed to a pile of violet, pink and blue items on the table next to him. "Are weapons, but this is interesting." He held the rod out to Adama, letting him take it.

"Interesting," He said, grasping the piece of metal as if he thought something the doctor had described would. As his fingers wrapped around the handle, two curved streaks of light appeared on the sides, the sound of crackling electricity filling the air. "Maybe it's some kind of toy," He speculated, moving it around. Not paying attention to the edges, the curtain rod above his head fell apart as the tips touched it, causing him to drop the device. The light disappeared as it struck the ground, a few arcs of energy coming out of the sides of the handle as it deactivated.

"You owe me a new curtain rod," Cottle said, chuckling to himself as Adama picked up the device carefully by one side and handed it to a marine. Adama nodded once, sighing as he thought of the prospect of dealing with the black market tellers again. "It would appear that the creatures are warm-blooded as well." Adama raised an eyebrow, silently inquiring to how he deduced that. Cottle used his pen to move a flap of skin aside, revealing gonads on the creature. "Gonads don't always denote blood type," he said, letting the skin cover the organs again before making his way to the other operating table. He pulled back the sheet that covered the second specimen, pulling aside the skin around the waist with two rods to reveal something Adama hadn't expected. "They give live birth from this example," Cottle said, letting Adama get a good look at the fetus. "The fact is trivial for now, though. I wouldn't have found this out if you hadn't told them to grab two, and even then this was only a mild bit of luck. Also," he said, taking out a biopsy syringe and driving it into the chest cavity of the subject. He pulled on the plunger, the glass tube filling with a white fluid. "They lactate." He shrugged, laying the syringe on the table and lighting another cigarette.

"_Action Stations, Action Stations,"_ the intercom sounded as the claxon alarms went off. _"We have five incoming objects moving at high speed. All pilots scramble Vipers for protective patrols."_ Adama looked up and sighed. His day was only getting more interesting.

**...**

"Come on, let's bounce those asses!" Deck Chief Tyrol yelled in his gravelly voice, urging the other mechanics to get it in gear. "Let's go! Get those Vipers in the tubes! Come on!" Starbuck ran by the chief, slapping him on the shoulder as Lee Adama followed close behind.

"Apollo," Starbuck yelled from the ladder of her Mk. 2 Viper. The young, brown haired pilot looked over at her from the cockpit of his Mk. 7. "Follow me when you get out. Admiral wants us to trail the contacts." Lee gave her a thumbs-up, sliding his helmet over his head before pulling his cockpit closed. Starbuck slid into her Viper, slipping on her helmet and closing the canopy before turning on her displays. Everything read green across the board, the launch tube closing behind the tail fin of her fighter. She looked over at the launch monitors in their separated room, giving them a thumbs-up and grasping the stick of her fighter. The monitor in the room slammed their hand down on a red button, causing the airlock to open and the accelerators to activate. Kara felt the ship near mach one as it was pulled down the tube, her pressure suit barely compensating for the force before she left the Galactica and entered the void of space. Apollo was already out of the tubes, having just passed hers after activating his thrusters. Kara flipped three switches, pressing a button on her console before pulling the throttle back and rocketing after the silver craft.

**...**

Jared woke in his pod, his displays black and the lights on the explosive bolts having already activated. 'How long was I out?' he asked his mind, his VISR system activating and bringing up the mission clock.

_**06:28:47 ELAPSED SINCE RELEASE FROM SHIP…**_

'Six hours…' he thought, running his tongue over his lips and teeth to wet them. 'No wonder I'm thirsty.' He looked around the cockpit of his pod, opening a compartment that he knew held a water pouch. The small bag fell from the compartment, a thin hose falling after it. Jared grabbed the hose and raised his helmet far enough to fit the end into his mouth, sucking on the fluid that slowly trickled out of the bag with gusto. He felt around his person blindly, finding the only weapons he had on him were his combat knife and his M6SOCOM sidearm. Without correcting his helmet, Jared reached behind his head and opened another compartment, reaching into the box and withdrawing his M7S. He felt the weapon over as he drank, finding it to be unloaded and void of a magazine. He huffed through his nose in frustration before taking a magazine out of the box and loading it into the chamber, racking the action to load a round before taking the other magazines from the compartment and stowing them in his ammo pouches.

He spit the hose out of his mouth as the bag ran dry, pulling his helmet down and sealing the vacuum in case where he had landed was lacking atmosphere. He could feel the gravity of the planet bearing down on him from above, which in his opinion was a good thing considering he could still be floating in space. He reached out and grasped the lock release lever, about to open the door discretely and keep the pod as a shelter until he realized what was outside.

The glass panes in his pod door were covered with debris, dirt and plant matter chief among them, the outer panels cracked and spider webbed. Beyond that, he could tell that he was in some sort of temperate forest, small critters and other assorted fauna moving around against a backdrop of stars, rain and a gas giant. Beyond the horizon was what seemed to be the remainder of the planet he was on, or maybe he should have said ring. The ring like structure curved up and back, presumably meeting with whatever was behind him. However, what had really caught his attention was the seven foot tall Brute standing four feet away with its back turned to him.

Jared swallowed hard, his experience failing him as he stared at the deadly being that stood in the rain. He knew that if he opened the door that it would alert the brute, but if he fired the bolts then he would alert its friends. He racked his brain, trying to remember all of the specs of the SOEIV Drop Pod, trying to find another way out. As far as he could remember, the front door was the only way in or out, a death trap and a blessing depending on how you landed. He was resigned to sit and wait for the beast to leave, leaning back and getting comfortable before his VISR flashed a set of instructions. 'Hello…' he thought as he looked over the list, the quick analysis having revealed a weakness in the back portion large enough for him to escape through.

**...**

"Holy Shit," Apollo said as he beheld the sight before him. About ten AU away from their position, floating near a gas giant, was a forty thousand kilometer wide ring. "Starbuck, are you seeing what I am?" He called over the radio, disbelief in his own eyes apparent on his voice.

"I don't know what I'm seeing Lee," she replied, checking the trajectory data on the five unknown contacts. "But whatever it is, those things should have hit it." She altered her course, banking toward the ring. "Come on," she said. "Let's finish this up." Apollo shook his head, banking starboard and increasing his speed to catch up with her.

**...**

Jared crawled out of the pod through a fractured panel in the back, the panel having saved his life since it had blocked a large shard of metal from impaling him. He stopped and fell onto his back, watching as the raindrops fell onto his visor slowly. 'Step one,' he thought as he sat back up and grabbed his weapons. He had to throw them ahead of himself to get out, the space barely being large enough for him alone. He looked around, trying to find a way around the pod without being detected. He found a small game tunnel through the brush, looking around the pod to make sure the brute couldn't see him.

'Step two,' he thought, low crawling through the brush-covered trail. As he worked around behind the Brute, he checked for any other Covenant, finding none to be seen. 'Doesn't mean there aren't a few invisible ones,' he said, remembering that the elites could cloak themselves. He continued along the path, finding that it turned to come within two feet of the Brute. He stopped behind the creature, rising to his feet while staying crouched behind some bushes and drawing his knife.

'Three,' he thought, surging forward and raising his knife. The Brute heard the bushes moving, turning quickly to see the silver face of an ODST before his vision went out. Jared drove the six-inch blade into the eye port on the Brute's helmet, shattering the glass and soaking the titanium edge in blood. The Brute seized twice, Jared planting his feet on the Brutes chest and pushing off. He performed a back flip in mid air, landing on his knees and sliding back in the dirt as he watched the beast fall back. 'And that makes one.'

**Allrighty then! this is the first chapter of the Halo/BSG2003 rewrite. i hope this was better than the original, because damn the first one sucked lol.**

**I hope to get some reviews, because if the fanbase has vanished for my story then i wont continue this.**


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